Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home
When I first described this book to my mother, she said, “Oh, it’s about how much you love your children.” I can’t put it better.
All parents want to keep their children safe and healthy, and sometimes it can feel overwhelming, especially when you factor in a lot of information many people are just learning about – the overwhelming abundance of chemicals we encounter in every day living, increasing rates of diseases, and so on. Cleaning up after germs doesn’t cut it anymore – now you have to be careful what you clean them up with. Putting down carpet so your children don’t hurt themselves on a hard floor isn’t necessarily “safe” either, with the chemicals in the carpet. Keeping track of everything that can harm us more than help us can feel like a burden, but it doesn’t have to be.
Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home by Christopher Gavigan is one of those books that every parent should have. I had only made it to page six of the book when I decided I needed to rethink how I would write this review. Up to that page, all of the information I had been given and thoughts I was mentally storing away for the review would have made this post a book in itself – that’s how much of a wealth of knowledge is shared in the book.
Protecting your child and keeping him or her healthy starts right at the beginning – in the womb. The chemicals you encounter as a pregnant woman also affect the developing fetus inside of you, so it is a very important time to take a look at what you are exposing yourself to. Healthy Child Healthy World, after the foreword and introduction, begins the first of its ten chapters – Doing the Bump: Preparing for Baby.
Detailed in five steps, this chapter includes information about eating and drinking right, avoiding chemicals in beauty products, keeping the air you breathe clean, and how to safely renovate to get ready for baby. It shares DIY tips, including a recipe for body butter and how to put together a green baby shower. There are also basic safety tips for pregnant women, as well as input from famous and not-so-famous parents.
Each chapter of Healthy Child Healthy World is set up in this manner – full of useful information and facts. The sidebar on many pages shares some scary statistics, such as “11: percentage of 10,000+ chemical ingredients found in cosmetics that have been assessed for health and safety by the Cosmetic Ingredient Review, and industry-funded panel of scientists.” Personal stories from many parents, famous and not, are scattered throughout the book. Recipes for everything from food to cleaning products to finger paint are available. There is even a chapter for raising your pets green! In the back of the book there is a list of “Five East Steps for a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home,” as well as an extensive list of resources.
While you may think that you know everything there is to know about staying healthy and green, you’d be surprised. If you don’t learn something from this book, you’re not reading it!
For an idea of what information can be found in the book, here is a list of the chapters:
Chapter 1 Doing the Bump: Preparing for Baby
Chapter 2 Cleanup Time: Safe Suds and a Greener Clean
Chapter 3 A Clean Plate: Choosing, Eating, and Storing Healthier Food
Chapter 4 The Beauty Part: Natural Body Care
Chapter 5 Child’s Play: Safer Toys, Gear, and Clothing
Chapter 6 Splendor in the Grass: Greener Gardens, Yards, and Outdoor Spaces
Chapter 7 Every Sip – and Breath – You Take: Clean Water and Air Solutions
Chapter 8 BFF: Raising a Green Pet
Chapter 9 Safe House: Healthy Home Improvement
Chapter 10 It’s All Good: How to Grow Your Impact
For more information, where to purchase, and reviews on Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home, visit HealthyChild.org.
